1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a monolithic ceramic electronic component including a coil conductor, and a multilayer composite prepared for manufacturing the monolithic ceramic electronic component.
2. Description of the Related Art
Monolithic ceramic electronic components including an inductor element as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 11-260642 (Patent Document 1) and 2000-150239 (Patent Document 2) are related to the present invention. In order to manufacture a monolithic ceramic electronic component including an inductor element, Patent Documents 1 and 2 disclose a process including the step of preparing a green stack including a green core primarily including a green magnetic material, a coil conductor made of a green electroconductive paste film around the green core, and green outer layers primarily including a green non-magnetic material surrounding the green core and the coil conductor, and the step of firing the green stack at one time.
However, since the firing step in the manufacturing process of a monolithic ceramic electronic component disclosed in Patent Document 1 or 2 fires different types of materials at one time, a constituent (for example, Ag or other constituent) included in, for example, the electroconductive paste film provided for the coil conductor may diffuse into the core, or constituents (for example, Fe, Ni, and other constituents) included in the green core may diffuse into the outer layers. Diffusion of these constituents into the core, the coil conductor, and the outer layers frequently prevents these components from exhibiting their inherent characteristics. For example, the inductor element may not exhibit desired characteristics in the resulting monolithic ceramic electronic component.